Spicy Tortilla Casserole with Roasted Poblanos and Chile-Lime Corn on the Cob

This dish from Viva Vegan! sounded like it had so much promise and I couldn't wait to make it. With spicy in the title and pine nut crema baked on top it sounded like it couldn't go wrong, but it did. It just wasn't anything special; it's the first recipe from this book to make me feel that way, so that's not too bad, but it was disappointing. It was dry and even with the roasted peppers, homemade sauce using fresh ingredients, pepitas and the crema, it was a bit bland. If there had been some sort of enchilada sauce to go on top this might have been alright. I just doused it in hot sauce/salsa, but unfortunately we didn't touch the leftovers. Next time I'm in the mood for something like this I'll make up the whole enchilada casserole from Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, that one's so good. Here are some in-progress shots of the sauce:



With the casserole I served some fresh summer corn, boiled and then served with squeezed fresh lime juice and chile powder. I got the serving idea from Fat Free Vegan. It was awesome, the flavors went so well together; I like it better than with Earth Balance. Pretty sure this will be my new favorite way to eat fresh corn. Although, I recently went to Gracias Madre and they had their own amazing version: chipotle cashew cream and cilantro--wow. Alright, there are lots of good ways to serve up some corn, but I'm loving this whole spicy thing.

Marley's Hemp Granola

It's been a while since I've made some granola and I really wanted one with lots of big chunks (that's how I love it!). I normally use the recipe from How It All Vegan which has great flavor but never forms chunks. This time I tried a recipe from Vegan Fusion World Cuisine and subbed brown rice syrup for the maple syrup because I've heard that that helps make it stickier and forms more chunks (plus I'm still out of maple syrup). I also subbed canola oil for the safflower oil. But, yes, hello chunks!!


I had to break this up quite a bit and ate some of the burned pieces while doing so, yum. This was fairly simple to prepare and gave me another use for my hemp seeds (til now I'd only used them for Spicoli Burgers from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan). This will be excellent with soy milk or yogurt and some fruit. I'm also drooling over the possibility of putting it on this banana soft serve from Choosing Raw (processed frozen bananas--the consistency of frozen yogurt!).

This is super sticky while it's cooking so I would recommend parchment paper or a Silpat while baking it up.

Mustard Green and Roasted Yam Soup with Pistachio Corn-Crusted Tempeh

This soup from Vegan Soul Kitchen was all that a good soup should be. It was warming, filling, and tasty. The bitterness of the greens was tamed by the sweetness of the yams and the apple cider vinegar spiked broth accentuated both superbly. After roasting the yams and cooking the mustard greens this cooked for an additional 25 minutes; if I made this again I wouldn't cook it quite so long, everything got a bit mushy. Still good, but I'd like to try it again with the vegetables holding up a little better.


We paired the soup with Pistachio and Cornmeal-crusted tempeh from Vegan Fusion World Cuisine. This is the first thing I've made from this book that I didn't love. I feel like the topping would have been better on tofu (which is listed as an optional preparation), because even though the tempeh was marinated it was still a bit dry after topping and cooking to direction. It also didn't stay warm for long enough to even eat. Steaming the tempeh prior to prep may have improved on this. I made a couple of substitutions with this recipe: yellow corn meal for blue and regular corn chips for blue corn. I probably wouldn't make this again as there are so many other great tempeh recipes in this and other books.